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Throw a Friendsgiving with Tips from The New Potato!

Not heading home to family this Thanksgiving? Instead of feeling down about missing Mom’s famous pumpkin pie, gather friends around your table for the newest thing to hit Thanksgiving since 1621: the buddies-only, millennial invention dubbed “Friendsgiving.” For advice on how to celebrate this still-in-its-infancy holiday, we turned to two experts from The New Potato, one of the freshest, and most innovative sites around. Laura and Danielle Kosann are charting new territory as the blog’s founders by offering a fresh take on food and celebrity featuring in-depth interviews with chefs, models, editors (including InStyle’s own Ariel Foxman!) and celebrities alike. The women offered up their Friendsgiving tips, from crowd-pleasing recipes to their dream dinner guests! Get them below.

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In terms of guests, do you prefer to invite a big group of close friends, or incorporate some new faces and let them all mingle? A mix of both is always fun, it's exciting to keep your close friends in mind in terms of new people they'd get along with. It's always rewarding to make new friendships happen at the party you're hosting.

Is there a magic number of guests when it comes to hosting a Friendsgiving? I think around 18 is always fun for a Friendsgiving, your guests can bring different things so it can be somewhat of a potluck and you can get that perfect 18- to 20-pound turkey.

How do you handle seating arrangements? We try to separate people we know may monopolize one another, we were recently at a tea with Valentino where he said to never seat couples together, so we keep that in mind. We also like to think about our guests, their interests and who they'll jive with and go from there.

Any tips for setting a table? We love low autumn-colored flower arrangements spaced evenly down a long table (so everyone can see one another), tapered candles and maybe a few gourds grouped as centerpieces. (it's Thanksgiving after all) It's always fun to give everyone a different wine glass as well. We also recently went to a party where the hostess put personalized notes inside each guest's name card. I think that's an amazing addition.

Alli Shepherd

What’s a go-to Friendsgiving recipe? For Friendsgiving, you can never go wrong with our Mom's sweet potato pie recipe. We don't make it as well as she does but it's still a hit every time.

What do you serve at the bar? Having wine as an option is always a good idea, and then after that it's fun to know your guests' favorite cocktails and make them that. Nothing's more personalized than having a gimlet waiting for your friend when she arrives because you know it's her favorite.

If you could invite anyone (at all!) to your Friendsgiving, who would you choose? Tina Fey and Lena Dunham, so no one would stop laughing.

Do you have any ways of re-purposing Friendsgiving leftovers? Unbelievably decadent turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and stuffing are the way to go.

What’s your #1 hostess tip? Start preparing beforehand in a way that everything is ready once everyone arrives, so you can actually enjoy your guests rather than cooking and running around while they're there.